Vers. 4, 5.-The Lord as an enemy. I. THE LORD MAY BEOOME TO us AS AN EKEMY. We must not suppose the relations of God to those who forsake him to bo purely neg11tive. He cannot simply leave them to their own devices. He is a King who must needs maintain order and restrain and punish rebellion, a Judge who cannot permit law to be trampled underfoot with impunity, a Father who cannot abandon his children, but must chastise them in their wrong-doing just because he is so closely related to them. Let it be well understood, then, that, in opposing ourselves to God we run counter to a power, a will, an active authority. We provoke the anger of God. ViT e do not simply strike ourselves against the stone, we cause the stone to fall upon us and grind us to powder. II. NOTHING CAN BE MORE TERRIBLE THAN FOR THE LORD TO BECOME TO US AS AN ENEMY. 'l'he very thought of God as an enemy should strike terror into one who finds it is a fact. 1. God is almighty. It is at once apparent that the war must end in defeat for the rebel. 2. God is just. Then he must be in the right with the great controversy. We must be :fighting on the wrong side when we are fighting against God. 3. God is gracious. How fearful must be the wrong-doing that provokes so kind a God to enmity! 4. God is our Father. Our Father become as our enemy I The unnatural ~ituation proclaims its own horror. 'l'he·nearness of God and his love to us make the :fire of his wrath the more fierce. The wrath of the "Lamb" is more awful than the raging of him who goes about as a roarillg lion seeking whom he may devour. Ill. Goo DOES NOT BECOME TO US AS AN ENEMY UNTIL WE HAVE PROVED OURSELVES TO BE ID.'EMIES TO HDL He has no wish to quarrel with us. He is changeless in his constancy of righteousness and love. It is we who break the peace. The declara- tion of war between heaven and earth is always issued by the lower world. It is not necessary, however, that our enmity should be overt in order that God may be seen as an enemy. Secret alienation of heart, quiet neglect of God's will, self-willed indiffer- euce to God, will constitute enmity. The fact that the enmity begins on our side will take away all excuse suggested by our feebleness in comparison with the greatness of God. IV. THOUGH Gon MAY BECOME TO US AS AN ENEMY, BE WILL NOT REALLY BE AN E!-~MY. He may act like an enemy, but he will not act in enmity. He will never hate the creature that he has made. His apparent enmity is very fearful because it results in actions of anger and punishment. Still behind all is the pitying heart of Divine love. God pities most when he strikes hardest. V. THROUGH THE ATONEMENT OF CHRIST Goo CEASES TO BE TO us AS AN ENEMY. Chrii;t is our Propitiation. By the sacrifice of himself he makes peace. And he does not simply influence our hearts iTJ. reconciling us to God. There is a God ward aspect of the atonement. This is not to induce God to love us, since the love of God precedes and originates the very mission of Christ. But in the mysterious counsels of Divine wisdom the atonement of Christ is rendered necessary for the cessation of God's inimice.l action (1 John ii 1, 2). Vers. 6, 7.-Tli.e rejected al,tar. In the first elegy we read how the feasts are neglected by the people (eh. i. 4). Now we see that God himself has broken them up and cast off his altar. 'l'hus we advance a stage in understanding the deplorable con- dition of Jerusalem. At first the human side only is seen and the visible facts are lamented over. Then the Divine side is discerned and the terrible cause of the cessation of the solemn festivals revealed. It is not simply that the people cease to present them- e' !vc·s before the altar. God has abandoned and rejected all the temple services, l. How Goo REJECTS THE A!,'l'AR. We r:nust bear in rpind that the altqr belongs to Oll, II, 1-22.] THE LAMEN'l1ATIONS OF JEREMIAH. 2L
Go<l and that all the ordinances of worship a.re his. Religion is not merely human and subjective. H relates to God e.nd it goes out of the human world reaching up to the Divine, There is scope, therefore, for God's action in it. lie may refuse his action. llo may not hear the prayers, nor accept the offerings, nor employ the services, nr,r succour the needs of the worshipper. Then he rejects the altar. This is representwl :-is being done with violence, destruction, and a Di.vine abhorrence. The desolation wrought by Ilabylon is traced up to the hand of God. So when our religious privileges are broken up by earthly means we should inquire whether God's displeasure is behind the calamity. It is not necessarily, But it may be. II. WHY Goo REJEOTR THE ALTAR. 1. Because the WO'T'Bhip is insincere. If we practise the forms of devotion without the heart of it our hypocrisy will only insult God. 2. Because the worshipper is corrupt. Thus was it with the Jews in Isaiah's time. God says," Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth . . . when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood" (Isa. i.14, 15). So David says," If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me" (Ps. !xvi. 18). 3. Because the offering is unwCYT'thy. The Israelite was to briug his best to God. No blemished sacrifice would be accepted. If we give less than the best in our power we make an unworthy offering. If only spare time and superfluous money are uffered to God, how can we expect him to receive such mean and niggardly service? He will have our brightest hours, our richest devotion, our hearts and lives and all, or he will take nothing. III. WITH WHAT RESULTS Goo REJEOTS THE ALTAR. When once the altar is rejected by God all sacrifice and service are vain. It matters little that the enemy throw down the stones of it. If it remains intact it is worthless. We may have full assemblies of people and rich and elaborate services and all the pomp and. ceremony of worship ; and it will be for nothing if God reject the worship. We think too little of this Divine side of religion. We are too much inclined to rest in the decorum and grace of becoming human forms of worship. Let it be known that the one end of worship is to reach God. If be is met by the soul, it matters little what means be used in worship. If he refuses to accept us, the form of worship is a mockery and a delusion.